Downtown Amarillo ballpark cash plan rounds first

Wallace Bajjali is the city’s private partner in a plan to build a $30.3- million ballpark, $69.3-million hotel and a $13.4-million parking garage adjacent to Amarillo City Hall and Amarillo Civic Center.

The funding structure for downtown revitalization projects such as a hotel and ballpark could be complete by the first quarter of 2013, said Joe Esch, of Sugar Land-based Wallace Bajjali Development Partners.

Esch updated Amarillo Local Government Corp. on Wednesday about progress on creating the funding structure for the downtown projects.

He said the group anticipated a very complex formula when they began looking into the project plans, but the market has since improved. The group is now working to create a more traditional debt structure.

“We’ve made a lot of progress, but it is still a very large project and will take some time,” he said.

Wallace Bajjali is the city’s private partner in a plan to build a $30.3-million ballpark, $69.3-million hotel and a $13.4-million parking garage adjacent to Amarillo City Hall and Amarillo Civic Center.

Once the funding is in place, formal designs of the projects will be created and bids will go out to contractors, Esch said.

The Amarillo City Commission has assigned Amarillo Local Government Corp. to manage the redevelopment project on the public’s behalf.

In other business, board member Richard Brown said the Center City Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone will likely have the same recommendations about recent circulation and wayfinding studies as Downtown Amarillo Inc.

Those recommendations include changing several downtown streets from one-way to two-way, adding curb extensions on the four arterial streets that run north and south through downtown, and creating a left-turn lane on South Fillmore Street to Southeast Sixth Avenue.

Brown said the decision to change one-way streets to two-way streets needs to be made before the city takes designs of the downtown projects to the state, although it could still be several months before those decisions are made.

The board also re-elected its officers for the upcoming year. Gary Pitner will continue to serve as president, Brown will remain vice president and Dean Frigo will stay as treasurer. City secretary Frances Hibbs will serve as secretary, replacing Donna DeRight, who retired Nov. 1.

Pitner said the positions are one-year terms, and board members can serve multiple terms.